Living in a dark place…
We’re living in a dark place.
Exile.
It could be anywhere. Exile is not a geographical location. Any place where you don’t belong, that’s exile.
I know it could be worse, you don’t have to tell me that. This is beautiful place and we’re not being mistreated.
But we know what we’ve seen. We know who we’ve lost. We carry the destruction and devastation and sorrow with us everywhere we go. Grief is our constant companion.
Our people are scattered. Our identity is shattered.
And our God? Where is our God? There is no temple for our God here. No traditions, no rituals, no framework for faith. All around us are other temples, statues and carvings of other gods. Our God does not belong here. We do not belong here.
We’re expected to establish a normal life here in this strange land. There is nothing normal about living here. We have been displaced. This is not where we should be. This is not our land. This is not our people.
We did not choose to come here. We cannot choose to return home. We are trapped in this place of exile.
I’m imagining this is how Ezekiel may have felt. This is his own story. He’d been a priest in Jerusalem, married and living a normal life. Then in 597 BC, the Babylonian armies had come. The city had been ransacked, loved ones had been killed and the skilled workers, the strong soldiers and the shrewd businessmen from among his people had been deported to Babylon. Ezekiel included.
I’m imagining this is in part how many of the displaced people across the world feel today.
I’m imagining this is how many of us feel at some times in our lives. That we are working and living in an environment where we do not belong. Where we feel like an exile. Misunderstood. Isolated.
I’m imagining this is how mental health issues can make us feel at times. Isolated in our depression. Exiled by our own paranoia. Drowning in anxiety.
I’m imagining that sometimes you look at the world and its crazy mixed up values and feel like you don’t belong here at all. That you are passing through as a stranger. That this is a dark place and your little light is flickering with the smallest flame in the darkness.
I think this month we are going to learn from Ezekiel whatever our exile looks like and feels like.
